“Solve For X”

There’s no equation here, or, is there…  In the novel Alice Network by Kate Quinn, Charlotte ‘Charlie’ St. Clair is trying to solve for X with a former veteran spy named Eve who served in the first world war for the Allied Forces. The X I am referring to is none other than Rose, the beloved cousin of Charlie who is presumed to be dead by the rest of her family due to the aftermath of the Great Wars.

Let’s take a look at what happened in the first third of the book.

Charlie leaves her mother in order to embark on this journey to find Rose. Her mother is someone who forces the gender stereotypical roles of a female on Charlie. Charlie, on the other hand, is a quiet, nice, smart college student who does not wish to adhere to the typical female roles that were put on to women during this time period. This ultimately gives her the push to find her cousin (can’t blame her).

Charlie visits an old woman named Evelyn Gardiner in London. Eve had worked at a bureau helping to locate for refugees and she came across Rose’s file. She, unfortunately, does not have any information on Rose (mind you that Charlie has a Luger pointed at her face during all this).

Luger

The book transitions to Eve in her younger days during the first world war. She gets recruited by Captain Cameron for her language skills. She is asked if she would like to work as a spy for the Alice Network and she agrees.

Charlie mentions the name “Le Lethe” which leads Eve and her caregiver Finn to agree to go on the journey. Charlie mentions something that she refers to multiple times as “My Little Problem”. It is assumed that she is pregnant. Eve makes a call to a woman and they depart for Rouen. It is also here that we learn Finn is an ex-convict.

Going back in time. Eve meets Alice Dubois, the leader of the Alice Network (I guess the spies were creative in everything except for naming their organization). She learns that she will be working at a restaurant called Le Lethe in the town of Lille under a corrupt man named René Bordelon. In this restaurant, German officials would meet up and occasionally discuss attack plans. Alice was given the mission to eavesdrop on their conversations and report back any important intel to Alice.

Female Spy

What makes this book so unique is the fact it switches between Charlie’s and Eve’s perspective constantly. By doing this the readers are able to get a more in-depth understanding of what life was like for Eve. This also gives readers like us information that Charlie wouldn’t know about, similar to how soliloquies are used in Shakespeare’s plays.

We can also see that this book discusses issues that females encountered during this time period by looking through the feminist lens. We can see how male dominance was prominent back in the day and how women were abused by that power. This book highlights the way women thought versus how they acted. Not all women wanted to be dressed up and pretty like Kim Kardashian. The Alice Network was an actual organization in real life and this book shows the important roles that women had in the ending of the Great Wars. This aligns with the thematic idea that women are just as capable as men.

Woman In War

I find that the author’s style of writing for the characters Charlie and Eve really helps to create personality. Obviously, by adding swearing to Eve’s dialogue, the reader can clearly see she is an “unwomanlike” character and that she doesn’t care about what other people think of her. While there is no swearing in Charlie’s dialogue, we can see how Charlie doesn’t have the same type of tone or mannerisms that her mother possesses when talking to men (like raising her voice in front of other men).

Some symbols that pop up are “My Little Problem” and “Solve For X”. “My Little Problem” is the baby that she is holding in her stomach, however, there is a deeper meaning to it. After becoming pregnant, Charlie was regarded as a “whore” by everyone including her family. This baby is a burden, or in other words, a problem for her because it completely destroys her image and innocence which are two aspects that were treasured most in that time period for a woman. The variable X as I said before, symbolizes Rose. However, this symbol also tells us a lot about Charlie’s personality. It tells us that she is someone who is good with numbers and wants to be able to solve everything in her life. This was looked down upon, as women were not supposed to be good with numbers back in that time period. However, she does not care about adhering to the gender stereotypes of a woman.

I don’t say this that often (since I don’t read much), but this is truly a book that I can’t put down. I was afraid that this book would be too focused on feminism but it has the perfect mix of integrating feminism in its interesting plot. I’m looking forward to the to discovering how this plot unfolds.